


Sunset

by camrin



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-14
Updated: 2013-04-14
Packaged: 2017-12-08 10:39:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/760420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camrin/pseuds/camrin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Sunset’s beautiful no matter where you go. That’s one of the beautiful things about it.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunset

“Y’all sure you don’t want us to come?” Madison Bumgarner asked. His wife Ali scoffed and shook her head.

“How many times do we gotta tell you? We’re having a girls day out… well, and Lee, but he’s a ladies man, so he’ll take care of us,” she said, lifting the child in her arms up to rest on her hip. Lee Posey smiled and buried a chubby hand in Ali’s hair. His mother, Kristen Posey, was busy securing his sister Addison in her car seat.

“We’re just offering,” Buster Posey said, smiling and ruffling his son’s hair. “I mean, you girls do all the work all the time.”

“Hush,” Kristen said, taking Lee from Ali’s arms. “We’re going to the park. You boys will stay here and chill out, and when we come home they’re all yours, all right?”

“You keep an eye on those girls, Lee,” Madison said, giving the child a wink. “Can’t trust women.”

Ali rolled her eyes and punched her husband lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t corrupt him already. He’s still young enough to not be as bone-headed as a normal man.”

“Love you,” Madison said, giving his wife a peck on the cheek.

“Thanks girls,” Buster said, kissing his wife. 

“Don’t get into trouble,” Kristen warned, sliding her sunglasses down from her forehead onto her nose. “Maybe we should have gotten them a babysitter,” she said to Ali.

“Get on out before I say something I don’t want my kids to hear,” Buster teased. He waved to the kids until the minivan drove out of sight.

“Come on ‘Daddy’,” Madison said. “Want to grab some beers and sit out on the deck?”

“Nothing sounds better,” Buster said, smiling and following Madison back into his house. Buster’s house was about thirty minutes away from the park. He’d felt nervous buying a house so expensive, but now that he had a nine-year contract, he was happy that he did. Madison lived in a complex very close to the field, but he and Ali were over at the Posey’s so often that Buster joked about building a barn for Madison to sleep in.

Buster navigated his children’s toys and the puppies as he and Madison headed into the kitchen. Grabbing two bottles of Budweiser, Buster opened the door out to the backyard. The dogs trailed behind him like little shadows.

“It’s getting warm,” Madison said, pulling out a wire deck chair and settling in. 

“Shoot, you call this warm?” Buster joked. “It’s barely sixty. I’m gonna need a jacket.”

“You whine too much,” Madison said, taking a sip of his beer. His face sobered up. “Hey… congrats, man. On the contract.”

“Thanks,” Buster said. “I mean, you already said congratulations, but thanks again.”

Everyone in the clubhouse had wished Buster congratulations when he’d signed the papers a few days ago. That was Friday, and this was Sunday, and he’d been getting phone calls non-stop from well-wishers in Leesburg who had known from day one that he was going to be a superstar. Madison had given him a strong hug and words of encouragement at the yard, but Buster hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk to anyone about it in detail.

“You scared?” Madison asked in that gentle, non-threatening yet to-the-point way only he could pull off.

“You kiddin’? ‘Course not.”

“Liar,” Madison said. “You’re scared.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I know you,” Madison said simply, taking another sip of his beer.

“So maybe I am,” Buster admitted. “But shoot, Maddie, you know I am. You would be too if you busted your ankle and didn’t know if you were gonna play again.”

“I ain’t faultin’ you,” Madison said. “Just figured you might wanna talk about it.”

“I don’t know, I mean, I talked to Kristen…”

“You don’t tell Kristen when you’re scared of things. You wanna protect her, so you make her think you ain’t scared of nothin’.”

“You’re right,” Buster said with a laugh. “You know how it is. I don’t know. It’s a really big contract.”

“You deserve it.”

“That’s what they say.”

“They’re right,” Madison said bluntly. “I’m only gonna be with you until 2017, and then I’m gonna be the first 200 million dollar pitcher and they’re gonna be talking about me all the time and putting me on all the car commercials, so you better enjoy it while you can.”

“You’d make a terrible commercial. No one would understand you.”

“I’d get …what are they called, acting lessons? They’d teach me to speak in a British accent. I’d sound sophisticated.”

“If you made a commercial with a British accent, I would buy literally whatever you sold.”

Madison laughed. One of Buster's dogs hopped up on his lap, and he shifted his legs so that it could sit comfortably.

“I like catching you,” Buster said. “You’re easy. We’re on the same page, you and I.”

“Yep, it’s not hard when you don’t make it too hard. Heard you’re gonna be catching Timmy again a lot this year.”

“That’s what Boch says.”

“You pissed about it?”

“Nah, we’re cool,” Buster said. “We’re fine. He gets it, I get it. Sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone.”

“A good catcher can be out of the zone and make it look like he’s in it,” Madison quipped.

“That might be the smartest thing I’ve ever heard you say. You might be a genius underneath all that incomprehensible twang.”

“I got a lot of secrets,” Madison said with a shrug. Buster felt his phone buzz in his pocket and pulled it out. 

“Look,” he said, showing Madison the picture that Kristen had sent him. Addison was playing in the sandbox with Lee, who was wearing a bucket as a helmet. “You think you and Ali are gonna want kids soon?” he asked, putting his phone in his pocket. 

“I’m not an old man like you yet. But if she wants to, I’ll do it.”

“You’d do anything Ali told you to do.”

“And you’re sayin’ you wouldn't climb up to the top of Mount Everest to get Kristen a snowball on a hot day? You’re one to talk, buddy. I don’t wanna be a dad if it turns me into someone like _you.”  
_

“I’ve half a mind to kick you out of my house. Get in your truck and leave.”

“I’m gone.”

They sat in amicable silence for a few minutes. “Someone once asked me if I’d ever let my son be a catcher, and I said no,” Buster said. 

“Why not?”

“Everything intensifies when you have a kid. You’re afraid that any little slipup could hurt them. Being a catcher is a dangerous position; I don’t want to think about Lee getting wiped out at the plate and having trouble walking or something worse…”

“You aren’t going to be able to protect him forever. Gotta realize that now.”

“How old _are_ you?”

Madison shrugged. “If I was a dad, I wouldn’t want my son to be a pitcher in case he’d be better than me.”

Buster laughed. “Guess I’ll just worry about that when the time comes, huh.”

“All you can do.”

Buster looked over at Madison and smiled. “Thanks for asking. About me, I mean. It’s nice to know someone cares.”

“Heck, if I didn’t, you wouldn’t tell anyone.”

Madison leaned down to pick up a dog toy and threw it into the yard. The dog hopped off his lap and chased after it. “Weak arm angle,” Buster chided. 

“Shut up.”

Buster grinned. He looked at Madison again. “Hey,” he said. “Have you ever wanted to like… do something that you know isn’t such a good idea?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like you really want to do something, but you know you probably shouldn’t.”

“Sure, lots of times. I’ve probably eaten more pie than I should, but it’s hard to say no to blueberry.”

Buster snickered. “Not like that. Like, something that could have lasting consequences.”

“Are you having second thoughts about your contract? It might be a bit late for that.”

“Nah, nothing like that.” He smiled sadly. “Never mind. I don’t really know where I was going with that.”

“That’s fine,” Madison said. He stood up and stretched. “Sun’s going down. The girls should be back soon.”

“You’re right,” Buster said, scratching his dog behind the ears before standing up. Madison smiled at him.

“Don’t worry too much about that contract, Buster. It’s like the thing about Lee; take it as it comes, you know?”

“Yeah, man, I know,” Buster said. He drained the rest of the beer bottle and set it on the table.

“San Francisco’s got a killer sunset,” Madison said, leaning against the siding.

“Sunset’s beautiful no matter where you go. That’s one of the beautiful things about it.”

“True,” Madison said. Buster stood next to him. “I’m glad you’re gonna be here for a while,” Madison said, turning to look at him. “I was real happy when I heard you signed.”

“I’m happy I’m gonna be here too,” Buster said. “We can make some noise for the next few years, yeah?”

“Most definitely,” Madison said. “I think we-“ 

He was cut off by Buster turning towards him and pushing him against the siding. Running a hand up his chest, he pressed his lips roughly against the pitcher’s. For a moment, time was held tight in place, and it would be sunset forever in San Francisco while the dogs ran around in the backyard chasing each other. Everything snapped back to reality with the sound of the garage door opening and the Posey family minivan pulling in. They broke apart, and Madison mumbled “I better help the girls with the kids,” and quickly disappeared into the house.

Buster sighed, leaning against the siding. He’d made a stupid, careless mistake. He could have just made the next nine years of his life very difficult. He didn’t know what something like that did to a friendship, and he wasn’t sure what the effect of doing something like that had on a battery.

But he was sure of one thing: Madison Bumgarner had kissed him back. 


End file.
